Description:
Did you ever lose some data because your palm turned on for an accidental key press? This seems to be a frequent problem, especially for users keeping their palm in a pocket of their trousers.

This tiny application allows you to disable the hard buttons (except, of course, the power button) when the palm is off.

Update Description:
From vers. 2.0 to vers. 2.1:

Now there is an option to turn on the device by pressing twice within a second a disabled button

Now the power button can be also disabled; in this case it must be pressed twice within a second to switch on the device. This option can be useful to Treo owners, that can also turn on the device by just opening the flip.

Reviews:

***** [Sep 2, 2007] by Zeke
My new Z22 come standard with a program like this, but my older Zire 71 doesn't. Whenever I slide it in or out of it's leather case, the joystick navigator catches the side, turning it on. This program program completely fixes my problem!

***** [Jun 17, 2007] by Howard
I bought my Palm second hand, with a new battery installed. I noticed it showed wear on one cornerwhere the leather case pressed. Pretty soon I had many instances of the battery going down prematurely. This software cured it - I have a funny feeling the last owner paid out for a new battery and got rid of it because of this. It is the one papp I would not be without

***** [May 6, 2007] by john
It works great on my Zire m150, but don't rename the file with a program like "FileZ". If you do that it will stop working.

***** [Jul 2, 2006] by Adam K
Does exactly what I need for my Clie T415! I wish there was a program like this for Pocket PC so I could use it on my iPaq h1910.

*** [May 10, 2006] by deni2s
Dosn't work with Tungsten E :/

***** [Aug 22, 2005] by Boaz
Love it. Own a Tungsten T and it works like a dream.

***** [Aug 20, 2004] by Lisa
This program is a godsend! It fixed the one problem I had with my beloved Zire 71 and allowed me to buy a cute case for it instead of an ugly hard case. I love, love, LOVE you!!

***** [Jul 2, 2004] by palmguy
This saves TONS of battery power on my Palm! Great job.

***** [Jun 9, 2004] by Vince
This is a great program, but as the power button continues to make my Zire71 turn on, I have to use the inconvenient, and hard to achieve "double click" of the power button. I have a suggestion. Is it possible to use some sort of code to turn it on? like for example, writing 'on' on the grafitti board, or pressing the 'on' switch while pressing two other keys. If it is possible, would you be kind enough to establish a new version of this program with that feature? Thanks very much for your time. Your work is very much appreciated here.

** [May 26, 2004] by Virtualhans
Hi! Just installed it on my Tungsten T2. It basically works, but unfortunately not with the on/off switch, which used to be my biggest problem in the past. Having it installed yesterday with 'disable all' again I lost my complete data after carrying my T2 with a soft-case in my pocket. Nice Try!!

***** [Feb 26, 2004] by Scott Strom
THANK YOU!!!!!! I already have cut a hole in the case for the protruding "joy"stick which has up to now cost me a lot of productivity--and caused me to have to reload all of the software back onto the unit numerous times because the battery kept running out. Your app is a HUGE help. Now I have to go find something to patch that hole up with....

***** [Feb 14, 2004] by Ricardo
It works great in my Zire 71. This is what I needed to stop those accidental turnnings on.

***** [Nov 26, 2003] by Martinga
Just what I needed - it solved the one shortcoming of my Palm Zire 71 - the protuding joystick which turns the unit on at the slightest movement. This allowed me to replace the awful Zire soft case with a leather case instead of one of those heavy and awkward hard cases. Only imprefection is that the power button double-click option is erratic, which the programmer warns you about (I turn that option off and generally the Zire still doesn't turn on unintentionally).

**** [Oct 1, 2003] by Dave
It basically works, except I've had no success protecting the POWER button on my Tungsten C. The double-click on is frustratingly unreliable. It definitely is not as simple as "a second press within a second", nor is there any reproducible pattern. Sometimes I end up having to reset the unit to get it on. Unfortunately, the Palm {C|W} "belt holster" case does seem to squeeze the power button sometimes, especially a new case that's tight. Bummer.

***** [Aug 17, 2003] by AirKlaus
This was the utility where I'm waiting for. Now it is possible to switch of the crazy Joy Stick of the Palm Zire 71, which was switching on the unit nearly always in my pocket. Thank you.

***** [Aug 3, 2003] by k3of4
Works well here on Palm Zire, that only has the flimsy rubberish flip cover. Helps solve a major annoyance of this model.

*** [Jul 3, 2003] by Einride
Excellent idea, but the result has a few glitches on my T|T...the first time I press a disabeled button it works fine, but the sekond time...2 sec later, 1 min later and so on turns the device on...so my problem still is there. Need a program that can disable all buttons exept power switch at all time with no second button press to start it...

***** [Jun 22, 2003] by Andy Glazar
I installed this on my Treo 90.It works better than I could have imagined. Now using the case I have for it just got much much better. Thank You!

***** [Jun 13, 2003] by D@n
This is the program I have been searching for. I can confirm that it works perfectly well for a Palm Tungsten T. I was about ready to throw the thing in the bin after buying a leathercase for it only to find it on all the time. THANK YOU! I would suggest that one idea I had for the next version (if one is coming) could be to incorperate a keypad lock mode similar to a mobile phone, where two selected keys pressed in quick succession will activate/lock the buttons etc.

***** [Jun 1, 2003] by Lornamac
I just installed this on my Zire 71, it works perfectly. What a great idea!

***** [May 15, 2003] by Harv M
The way I use this app with the security feature on my Treo90 is by:
- Turning off the PDA if it isn't off already (this cues the security sign-on screen)
- Turning it back on (either with the power button or one of the hard keys)
- Turning off the PDA (this engages Disable Button 2.0)

Any subsequent hard key presses will only turn it on for a split second and then off again. This way you have the security of the locking feature AND the battery protection of the Disable Buttons. Of course this is an 'active' work-around so if your unit goes to auto-off, the next hard key press will turn your unit on (to the security sign-on screen) and keep it on for the duration of your "Auto-off" delay setting. Either this or disable the Auto-Lock by setting your Auto-Lock in Security Preferences to "Never".

*** [May 13, 2003] by Mike
Hmmm, I thought that this was a great utility until I discovered that if your PDA is locked, pressing a button will still turn it on with the security screen showing. Since my PDA locks after an hour of non-use (aka., it is often locked when in my pocket), this little program won't do me much good at all! Is there any way to prevent the security signon screen from coming up?

***** [May 1, 2003] by Harv M
V2.0 works great on a Treo 90. When it's active, button presses only turn the PDA on for a split second. Power conservation is such a critical issue on these new PDAs with power hungry color displays and built-in, low capacity rechargeable batteries. Great app, thanks!

***** [Apr 30, 2003] by Syaman
Exactly what my Zire71 needed to stay off in my pocket. Thank you for this useful utility!

**** [Apr 28, 2003] by xafwodahs
I just installed it on my m500 and it seems to work without any problems. I can tell it is not truly 'disabling' the buttons - the palm still powers up but is immediately turned off again, which is probably good enough. I wish there was a solution to really disable the buttons, but perhaps the OS or hardware makes that impossible.

***** [Mar 21, 2003] by Francisco A M Arag„o
Palm500s are a disaster at this point [buttons always on draining power]. so if you have this model you can't go on without it.

** [Mar 21, 2003] by Sam
I tried out the last version on my m505 and it made me lose a lot of data so I worry about installing a new one. That's ok though, because I have a better solution: There is a program called Address Uno. I'm pretty sure it's listed here on freewarepalm.com somehwere. What it is is the basic address book program, but with one-handed navigation. Now, I actually don't use that feature much but what I AM interested in is the side effect it has: the hard buttons don't work to let you open other programs unless you are editing a record. All I need to do to save my palm's power is press the address button, and make sure it's in a category with no records (unfiled for me). This way, it is only possible to quit the program if the palm is turned on and then the selected category somehow changed.

***** [Mar 20, 2003] by Chas
Works fine on my Handspring. Recently I have found the battery going flat quicker than normal. I thought I unit might be switching on in my pocket, this will cure it.

***** [Mar 20, 2003] by Pasquale Foggia
With the help of Peter Smith I have discovered that the problem that locked up some devices (as reported by Nick and by Peter) was due to my web server, that sometimes provided a truncated PRC file. Now that the file is stored as a .ZIP, there problem should no more appear.

** [Mar 20, 2003] by Erik Smit
Still the program is not Tungsten friendly. I am really looking forward to the next version.

**** [Feb 17, 2003] by Alan
Version 1.1 works fine on my Treo 90. I've used it for 4 days, and it has worked as expected every time. I have no hacks installed.

** [Feb 17, 2003] by Bob Neumann
It locked my M505 on and disabled the buttons and I had to do a hard reset.

***** [Feb 15, 2003] by Pasquale Foggia
I'm sorry for Nick, but I have actually tested the application on a m505, and it seems to work flawlessly.

* [Feb 15, 2003] by Peter
Good idea. Bad implementation. Installed on Palm M515. It locked all hardware buttons with the system ON! Like Nick, I had to hard reset to get rid of the the thing. I don't think it likes OS4! Developer's website makes no mention of this program I can find.

**** [Feb 13, 2003] by Joaquin Durazo
It works very well but just for the first attempt of turning the Palm on with the buttons. I have tried this on a Clie T665 and a Tungsten.

* [Feb 13, 2003] by Nick
Hi, me again. I've just done all I could to delete this program but it all failed. I am currently in the process of restoring my palm after hard-resetting it to get rid of this program.

** [Feb 13, 2003] by Nick
Seems like a good idea, I've been waiting for something like this to come along (one that works) but it doesn't. My m505 (OS 4.0.0) crashed on the launching of this, but the database remained labeled open so my palm won't delete it. I am worried about unmarking the open bit becuase even though I know it's not working (ie the hard buttons still work) I think it might be doing... things. Anyways, I suggest it be written for HackMaster (just a good habit for programs, ie hacks, like these).

***** [Feb 11, 2003] by Sprinter
Not bad except that it also turns off my Treo when the flip lid is opened. I wish it were Treo-aware.